400,000 To Develop Cancer In Japan

Real Experts Speak! Japanese Radiation Risk In US, 400,000 To Develop Cancer In Japan

On March 11th, 2011 an earthquake and ensuing tsunami rocked Japan, killing thousands and causing upwards of three partial or full meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Corporate experts and nuclear industry shills have continuously claimed that the dangers are minimal, pushing the lie that the disaster was smaller and less severe than Chernobyl.

Thankfully, two experts have come forward and reported the real dangers of this large scale nuclear disaster.

On March 15th, Dr. Russell Blaylock, M.D said that if a radiation plume from Japan hit the U.S. west coast it could pose a threat to the nations crops and the people that eat them. As we know, levels of radiation in milk in three states has been recorded at much higher levels then normal, causing some to believe that the radiation has indeed hit the U.S. food supply.

As we have noted in multiple articles, the risk in the United States is not radiation sickness, instead there will be an increased risk of cancer.

“Most of the health risks are not going to be due to acute radiation poisoning,” Blaylock told Newsmax. “It’s going to be a risk of increased cancer.

“When we look at Chernobyl, most of West Germany was heavily contaminated. Norway, Sweden. Hungary was terribly contaminated. The radiation was taken up into the plants. The food was radioactive. They took the milk and turned it into cheese. The cheese was radioactive.”

We now know that milk/cheese has been contaminated and products bought in a grocery store in San Fransisco tested positive for radioactive iodine 131.

A French research body on radioactivity has stated that the radiation levels that have been found in Europe are no longer negligible and pregnant women and children should avoid risky behavior.

Meanwhile, Dr. Chris Busby, a leading expert on the effects of radiation on the human body, has stated that 400,000 people in Japan may die from cancer.

It is clear that the so called experts that the corporate media has promoted are nothing more then nuclear industry/government lackeys and without people such as Russell Blaylock and Dr. Chris Busby information on the Fuksuhima disaster would be completely censored.

http://inquisitionnews.amplify.com/2011/04/14/400000-to-develop-cancer-in-japan/

WTF is going on with world?

Swarms of rats migrate across Australia


April 7, 2011 – AUSTRALIA – A mass migration of rats is under way into the inland deserts of Australia after a run of high rainfall seasons, scientists say. The native long-haired rat, or Rattus villosissimus, normally lives in the Barkly Tableland of the Northern Territory and in western Queensland. But now it has been spotted in Alice Springs for the first time in 25 years. Peter McDonald, acting scientist with Northern Territory Biodiversity Conservation, said the phenomenon was a “huge event” which he attributed to a run of consecutive good, high rainfall seasons. ”It is unusual in the rodent world but Rattus villosissimus are unique in that way and they are pretty famous for their eruptions,” he added. “Probably the only similar expansion by a rodent is seen in the lemmings in the northern hemisphere with their irruptions. There is nothing else in Australia which irrupts over such a large area.” Alice Springs generally has no rats because of its arid climate. The long-haired rodent was first sighted around the middle of last year on the edge of the Simpson Desert, south-east of the town, Mr McDonald said. Its ability to produce 12 babies every three weeks gives it the highest reproductive potential of any rodent in Australia, he noted


Deep tremors shake large dormant volcano in Iceland

April 7, 2011 – ICELAND – A deep earthquake has occurred at Iceland’s Hofsjökull volcano. The volcano hasn’t erupted in recorded history and is said to have last had activity during the Holocene period according to geologists. The icecap in Hofsjökull volcano is deep. At its deepest point it is 650 meters deep at the most. The deepest points of the icecap are in the main caldera of Hofsjökull volcano. If Chaitén volcano in Chile has taught geologist anything, a dormant volcano doesn’t need a long time to go from dormant to an active eruption. That is why I find it worrying that deep earthquakes have started to appear in Hofsjökull volcano, even if they are extremely rare so far. Over the past ten years or so there has been a slight increase in earthquake activity in Hofsjökull volcano along with increase in hydrothermal activity.

In terms of Icelandic volcanoes, Hofsjökull volcano is more complex than most. South of it lies the Kerlingafjöll volcano. It is a volcano known for its heavy hydrothermal activity. Hofsjökull volcano lies along an east-west-trending area connecting the two principal rift zones of Iceland. It bridges the gap between the Reykjanes-Langjökull rift on the west, which terminates at Langjökull, and the eastern zone, which extends NE-ward across east-central Iceland. Besides being one of Iceland largest volcanoes, its location also makes it extremely dangerous. As it is located in the middle of Iceland, and a glacier flood from it could go many different ways down to the ocean and over large populated areas in Iceland. The deep earthquake is close to the caldera. The earthquake of concern under the Hofsjökull volcano took place at 10:11 UTC on 5. April 2011. That earthquake had a depth of 27.6 km. Its size was ML1.4, so it was a small earthquake. I do not believe that this depth is an error in the SIL system (though sometimes this occurs). A second earthquake took place at 10:13 UTC, its size was ML1.6 with the depth of 1.6 km. Whatever might be happening with Hofsjökull volcano; it’s worth watching even if it’s not going to erupt just yet.

Status update: Mount Baekdu, a dormant volcano in North Korea, which hasn’t erupted since 1903 is showing increased signs of unrest, especially since the 9.0 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11, 2011. In Japan, 19 dormant volcanoes are also showing signs of increased activity. Three volcanoes in the Philippines are reporting heightened activity and the Mt Ruapehu volcano in New Zealand is reported increased emissions of gases and rising temperatures in the volcanic Crater Lake. Three mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan have also erupted since the March 11 earthquake in Japan and quakes are stirring under Iceand’s network of ancient volcanoes. Either this is all one big coincidence or we’re moving into the next geological stage of this Earthchanges crisis

Worms rain down from cloudless sky in Galashiels Scotland


April 7, 2011 – Galashiels, SCOTLAND - A PE class had to run for cover as it started raining worms. Teacher David Crichton was leading a group of pupils playing football at Galashiels Academy when dozens of the invertebrates began plummeting from the sky. The 22 second-year boys had to abandon their lesson. Mr. Crichton said the children had just completed their warm-up when they began to hear “soft thudding” on the ground. The class then looked to the cloudless sky – and saw worms falling on to them. Mr. Chrichton, 26, said he was baffled by the incident, with teachers later finding more worms spread across a tennis court almost 100 yards away. Mr. Crichton said: “We went out to one of our outdoor areas – an all-weather Astroturf pitch. “We were out playing football and had just done our warm-up and were about to start the next part of the lesson. “We started hearing this wee thudding noise on the ground. “There were about 20 worms already on the ground at this point. Then they just kept coming down. “The kids were laughing but some were covering their heads and others were running for cover for a while. “The just scattered to get out of the way.” The teacher scooped up handfuls of the worms that had fallen from the sky as proof they had landed on his class. Mr. Crichton said he and his colleagues eventually found about 120 worms after checking the artificial football pitch and tennis courts… The incident in Galashiels is believed to have been caused by freak weather over a nearby river lifting water and worms and dumping it over the road. Similar events were recorded in 1872 in Somerville, Massachusetts, in 1877 in Christiana, Norway, and in 1924 in Halmstad, Sweden. In July 2007 a woman was crossing a road in Louisiana when large clumps of tangled worms dropped from above.

Philippines major volcanoes now all showing signs of increased unrest


Taal Volcano - Restive Taal Volcano continued to show signs of activity, as state volcanologists recorded at least five volcanic quakes there in the last 24 hours. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) on Wednesday said it also observed weak steaming activity at the thermal area of the main crater-lake. Phivolcs also reiterated its warning against carbon dioxide in the area, saying gas measurements in March amounted to 4,670 tons per day – double the 2,250 tons per day in January. “The remarkable increase in C02 [Carbon dioxide] concentration indicates anomalous gas release from the magma at depth,” it said. It added Alert Level 1 remains over Taal Volcano, saying no eruption is imminent but the public should strictly observe some safety precautions.
Bulusan Volcano - Phivolcs also recorded at least three volcanic quakes around Bulusan Volcano in Bicol in the last 24 hours. It also noted a “wispy to weak emission of white steam” at the southeast and northwest thermal vents while the summit crater was cloud-covered during the past observation period. No lahar event was reported or observed. Phivolcs said Bulusan Volcano’s status remains at Alert Level 1, meaning the source of activity is hydrothermal and shallow. “Entry to the 4-kilometer radius Permanent Danger Zone (PDZ) is strictly prohibited, since the area is at risk to sudden steam and ash explosions. Due to the prevailing wind direction, residents in the northwest and southwest sectors of the volcano are reminded to take precautions against ash falls,” it said. Civil aviation authorities were also urged to warn pilots to avoid flying close to the volcano’s summit as ejected ash and volcanic fragments from sudden explosions may be hazardous to aircraft.
Mayon Volcano – Phivolcs said Mayon Volcano in Albay did not detect any volcanic earthquake during the past 24 hours, while steam from the crater varied from wispy to weak and drifted towards west-southwest. But it said a fair crater glow (Intensity II, can be seen by naked eye) was observed Tuesday night. Alert Level 1 is also in effect over Mayon Volcano, Phivolcs said. “Although this means that no eruption is imminent, it is recommended that the public should not enter the 6-kilometer radius PDZ due to the continuing threat from sudden small explosions and rockfalls from the upper and middle slopes of the volcano,” it said. -GMA News -April 7, 2011


Scientist warns South Island’s earthquake nightmare may be just beginning

April 7, 2011 – CHRISTCHURCH – People in Canterbury are being warned of more earthquakes and aftershocks for years to come. The Natural Hazards Manager at GNS Science, Kelvin Berryman, says it is impossible to tell for sure how long the aftershocks will continue. But he says previous earthquakes, in this country and overseas, have been followed by seismic activity for up to 30 years. Dr. Berryman says while the current sequence of aftershocks will eventually drop off, there is a possibility it could trigger further earthquakes, beginning the cycle again.

Kashmir plagued by tremors, landslides and extreme weather

April 6, 2011 – KASHMIR – At least 11 houses and another dozen structures were damaged due to landslides caused by incessant rains in Baramulla district of north Kashmir today, officials said. Eleven residential houses and 12 cowsheds were partially damaged due to the landslides triggered by rains on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road in the villages of Checki Kudpora, Lateefabad and Kawhar in Sheeri, 65 kms from here, they said. The landslides also partially damaged orchards in these villages but there was no report of any casualty. Senior revenue and police officials have visited the landslide-hit villages to assess the damage, the sources said, adding that the affected population has been evacuated and has taken shelter at safer places. While high altitude areas of the Kashmir Valley including the famous ski resorts of Gulmarg and Pahalgam experienced moderate snowfall over the past one week, incessant rains lashed the plains including Srinagar. However, there was no immediate threat of floods in the Valley. The MeT department has predicted more rains or snowfall during the next six days in the Valley, much to the concern of the farming community which has started agricultural activities with the advent of spring. An intense cold wave gripped the Valley following the inclement weather as the mercury plummeted seven to eight degrees below normal for this part of the season.

Australian lake fish kill mystify area residents

March 30, 2010 – AUSTRALIA - Dead mullet have been found floating on the surface of a Taree waterway for the second time in less than two months. The fish could be seen at the wetland near Nulama Village at Taree North yesterday, also the site of a similar fish kill in February. The heat and subsequent loss of oxygen from the water was blamed on that occasion but does not seem likely this time due to the much milder weather conditions. Some of the fish were found on the banks of the wetland, suggesting they may have jumped from the water. Experts from the Department of Fisheries were not available for comment yesterday. –Manning River Times

Death-toll rises to 15 from flooding and landslides in Thailand

March 30, 2011 – BANGKOK — At least four people have been killed in landslides in southern Thailand, bringing to 15 the death toll in the flood-battered region. A Krabi province official says another 10-20 people are missing in the landslides from late Tuesday night. Some seven villages were affected by the slides, three of which were inaccessible Wednesday morning. Vittayen Muttamara says 716,110 persons have been affected by floods in eight southern provinces. The Thai Navy has dispatched three vessels to help evacuate tourists from resort islands such as Koh Samui. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva visited the region Wednesday morning and ordered residents evacuated from all areas at risk.

The planet is really shifting and who doesn't believe that must be blind and pure ignorant.

Burma shaken by back-to-back natural disasters- thousands now feared dead

March 29, 2011 – BURMA (Myanmar) – Of the 7,000 fishermen that were swept into the Andaman Sea during a tropical storm on March 14-16, a total of 3,374 have now been rescued, according to a source close to the Myanmar Marine Fishing Association (MMFA). The remaining 3,700 are still missing. Nearly two weeks since 400 fishing vessels were overturned or destroyed in 70mph winds, little hope remains of anyone else surviving. “There are currently about 400 fishing vessels at sea trying to rescue survivors of the storm,” said the source. “So far, more than 3,700 fishermen have been rescued and brought to Rangoon.” Burma’s state media reported on March 22 that naval ships, large fishing vessels and local fishing boats had jointly rescued 3,374 fishermen. While 3,152 have already gone home, 222 fishermen remain under government care, the report said, adding that the rescued fishermen had been provided medicine, clothes and food. The tropical storm occurred off the Irrawaddy delta coast close to areas such as Bogalay and Laputta which were severely hit by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008. “We already listed 7,000 people as missing at sea along with their vessels,” said an official from the Botahtaung Thanlyin naval compound. “But that figure does not include those people living in littoral areas. So the number of dead may be higher.” He and other navy officers confirmed that more than 200 bodies had already been recovered from the sea. “The majority of boats that were overturned were carrying local fishermen,” said the MMFA source. “Fishing vessels from Rangoon are generally larger, stronger and better equipped to resist the storm.” Naval sources have estimated that the majority of missing fishermen are from Irrawaddy Division and Mon State. -Irrawaddy.org
Meanwhile the death toll from the March 24, 2011 6.8 earthquake has risen to 150 but sources say the government may be hiding the actual number of fatalities from the Western press so the true account of the devastation from the quake may never be fully known.

Final events unfolding in the Middle East And Africa that will soon lead to war

March 28, 2011 – TEHRAN – New evidence has emerged that the Iranian government sees the current unrest in the Middle East as a signal that the Mahdi–or Islamic messiah–is about to appear. CBN News has obtained a never-before-seen video produced by the Iranian regime that says all the signs are moving into place — and that Iran will soon help usher in the end times. While the revolutionary movements gripping the Middle East have created uncertainty throughout the region, the video shows that the Iranian regime believes the chaos is divine proof that their ultimate victory is at hand. The propaganda footage has reportedly been approved at the highest levels of the Iranian government. It’s called The Coming is Near and it describes current events in the Middle East as a prelude to the arrival of the mythical twelfth Imam or Mahdi — the messiah figure who Islamic scriptures say will lead the armies of Islam to victory over all non-Muslims in the last days. “This video has been produced by a group called the Conductors of the Coming, in connection with the Basiji — the Iranian paramilitary force, and in collaboration with the Iranian president’s office,” said Reza Kahlil, a former member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards who shared the video with CBN News. Kahlili, author of the book, A Time to Betray, worked as a double agent for the CIA inside the Iranian regime. “Just a few weeks ago, Ahmadenijad’s office screened this movie with much excitement for the clerics,” Kahlili told CBN News. “The target audience is Muslims in the Middle East and around the world.” –CBN News

It's Gonna Blow!

Scientists in Iceland are saying that the Grimsvotn volcano shows signs of eruption. This will happen soon. The nearby river has increased its flow to triple of normal. Moderate quakes are happening frequently.

No one knows if this eruption will be as crippling as the last one which stopped air traffic for a long time. But, they know something will happen.

Add to this the eruptions in Indonesia, Siberia, Colombia and Guatemala, and there is a great chance of much air traffic coming to a halt for a while. In a addition, the ash volume in the atmosphere could blot out enough sunlight to lower Winter temperatures drastically.

This is just the beginning of what we will see in the next few months.

Ecologists warn the planet is running short of water

A swelling global population, changing diets and mankind's expanding “water footprint” could be bringing an end to the era of cheap water.

The warnings, in an annual report by the Pacific Institute in California, come as ecologists have begun adopting the term “peak ecological water” — the point where, like the concept of “peak oil”, the world has to confront a natural limit on something once considered virtually infinite.

The world is in danger of running out of “sustainably managed water”, according to Peter Gleick, the president of the Pacific Institute and a leading authority on global freshwater resources.

Humans — via agriculture, industry and other demands - use about half of the world's renewable and accessible fresh water. But even at those levels, billions of people live without the most basic water services, Dr Gleick said.

A key element to tackling the crisis, say experts, is to increase the public understanding of the individual water content of everyday items.

A glass of orange juice, for example, needs 850 litres of fresh water to produce, according to the Pacific Institute and the Water Footprint Network, while the manufacture of a kilogram of microchips — requiring constant cleaning to remove chemicals — needs about 16,000 litres. A hamburger comes in at 2,400 litres of fresh water, depending on the origin and type of meat used.

The water will be returned in various forms to the system, although not necessarily in a location or at a quality that can be effectively reused.

There are concerns that water will increasingly be the cause of violence and even war.

Dan Smith, the Secretary-General of the British-based peacebuilding organisation International Alert, said: “Water is a basic condition for life. Its availability and quality is fundamental for all societies, especially in relation to agriculture and health. There are places — West Africa today, theGanges-Brahmaputra river system in Nepal, Bangladesh and India, and Peru within ten years — where major changes in the rivers generate a significant risk of violent conflict. Good water management is part of peacebuilding.”

David Zhang, a geographer at the University of Hong Kong, produced a study published in the US National Academy of Sciences journal that analysed 8,000 wars over 500 years and concluded that water shortage had played a far greater role as a catalyst than previously supposed.

“We are on alert, because this gives us the indication that resource shortage is the main cause of war,” he told The Times. “Human beings will definitely have conflicts over this.”

Although in theory renewable sources of water were returned to the ecosystem and their use could continue indefinitely, Dr Gleick said, changes in the way water was exploited and how its quality degraded meant that methods of processing it would become more expensive.

“Once we begin appropriating more than ‘peak ecological water' then ecological disruptions exceed the human benefit obtained,” Dr Gleick said. Defined this way, many regions of the world had passed that peak and were using more water than the system could sustain.

A significant part of the problem is the huge, and often deeply inefficient, use of water by industry and agriculture. UN calculations suggest that more than one third of the world's population is suffering from water shortages: by 2020 water use is expected to increase by 40 per cent from current levels, and by 2025, according to another UN estimate, two out of three people could be living under conditions of “water stress”.

The World's Water report sounds a particularly strong note of alarm over the state of water usage and pollution in China, where rampant economic expansion has overtaxed freshwater resources and could even begin to threaten stability.

“When water resources are limited or contaminated, or where economic activity is unconstrained and inadequately regulated, serious social problems can arise,” wrote Dr Gleick, “and in China, these factors have come together in a way that is leading to more severe and complex water challenges than in almost any other place on the planet.”

Drop by drop

— Water footprint calculations are still only rough. They differ around the world and depend on climate, soil types, irrigation methods and crop genetics. The water footprint of different meats depends on what the animals are fed and the relative “thirst” of the crops used to feed them

— The amount of water required to produce a single litre of soft drink may be only three or four litres, but vast quantities are used to produce the sugar and corn syrup feedstocks. For example, one kilogram of paper requires 125 litres of water to process, but that excludes the water needed to grow the tree

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5562906.ece

U.S. military report warns 'sudden collapse' of Mexico is possible

EL PASO - Mexico is one of two countries that "bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse," according to a report by the U.S. Joint Forces Command on worldwide security threats.

The command's "Joint Operating Environment (JOE 2008)" report, which contains projections of global threats and potential next wars, puts Pakistan on the same level as Mexico. "In terms of worse-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico.

"The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone."

The U.S. Joint Forces Command, based in Norfolk, Va., is one of the Defense Departments combat commands that includes members of the different military service branches, active and reserves, as well as civilian and contract employees. One of its key roles is to help transform the U.S. military's capabilities.

In the foreword, Marine Gen. J.N. Mattis, the USJFC commander, said "Predictions about the future are always risky ... Regardless, if we do not try to forecast the future, there is no doubt that we will be caught off guard as we strive to protect this experiment in democracy that we call America."

The report is one in a series focusing on Mexico's internal security problems, mostly stemming from drug violence and drug corruption. In recent weeks, the Department of Homeland Security and former U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey issued similar alerts about Mexico.

Despite such reports, El Pasoan Veronica Callaghan, a border business leader, said she keeps running into people in the region who "are in denial about what is happening in Mexico."

Last week, Mexican President Felipe Calderon instructed his embassy and consular officials to promote a positive image of Mexico.

The U.S. military report, which also analyzed economic situations in other countries, also noted that China has increased its influence in places where oil fields are present.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_11444354

New Pyramid Found in Kemet

SAQQARA, Egypt (AP) _ Archaeologists have discovered a new pyramid under the sands of Saqqara, an ancient burial site that has yielded a string of unearthed pyramids in recent years but remains largely unexplored.

The 4,300-year-old monument most likely belonged to the queen mother of the founder of Egypt's 6th Dynasty, and was built several hundred years after the famed Great Pyramids of Giza, antiquities chief Zahi Hawass told reporters in announcing the find Tuesday.

The discovery is part of the sprawling necropolis and burial site of the rulers of ancient Memphis, the capital of Egypt's Old Kingdom, about 12 miles south of Giza.

All that remains of the pyramid is a 16-foot-tall structure that had been buried under 65 feet of sand.



"There was so much sand dumped here that no one had any idea there was something buried underneath," said Hawass.

Hawass' team had been excavating at the location for two years, but only determined two months ago that the structure, with sides about 72 feet long, was the base of a pyramid. The pyramid is the 118th discovered so far in Egypt, and the 12th to be found in Saqqara. Most are in ruins; only about a dozen pyramids remain intact across the country.

Archaeologists also found parts of the pyramid's white limestone casing — believed to have once covered the entire structure — which enabled them to calculate that the complete pyramid was once 45 feet high.

"To find a new pyramid is always exciting," said Hawass. "And this one is magical. It belonged to a queen."

Hawass said he believes the pyramid belonged to Queen Sesheshet, who is thought to have played a significant role in establishing the 6th Dynasty and uniting two branches of the feuding royal family. Her son, Teti, ruled for about a dozen years until his likely assassination, in a sign of the turbulent times.

The pyramids of Teti's two wives, discovered 100 years ago and in 1994 respectively, lie next to it, part of a burial complex alongside the collapsed pyramid of Teti himself.

The Egyptian team is still digging and is two weeks from entering the burial chamber inside the pyramid, where Hawass hopes they will find proof of its owner — a sarcophagus or at least an inscription of the queen, he said.

Finding more than that is unlikely, as robbers in antiquity looted the pyramid, he said, pointing to a gaping shaft on the structure's top, a testament of the plunder.

On Tuesday, workers wearing white turbans and dust-covered robes scurried back and forth, carrying large rocks and bags heaped with sand away from the site.

Using an air brush, one worker cleaned sand from stunning hieroglyphic details on the white limestone casing, while archaeologists studied the inscriptions and students drew blueprints of the pyramid's base.

Dieter Wildung, a leading Egyptologist and head of Berlin's Egyptian Museum, said it was common in the Old Kingdom for kings to build pyramids for their queens and mothers next to their own.

"Hawass is likely right" that the pyramid belonged to Sesheshet, said Wildung, who was not involved in the dig. "These parallel situations give a very strong argument in favor of his interpretation."

But Joe Wegner, an associate professor of Egyptian archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania who has been involved in other expeditions at Saqqara, cautioned that until "inscriptional confirmation is found, it's still an educated guess" that the pyramid is Sesheshet's.

Although evidence of the queen's existence was found elsewhere in Egypt in inscriptions and a papyrus document — a medical prescription to strengthen the queen's thinning hair — the site of her burial was not known.

The find is important because it adds to the understanding of the 6th Dynasty, which reigned from 2,322 B.C. to 2,151 B.C. It was the last dynasty of the Old Kingdom, which spanned the third millennium B.C. and whose achievements are considered the first peak of pharaonic civilization.

Saqqara is most famous for the Step Pyramid of King Djoser, built in the 27th century B.C.

Excavations have been going on here for about 150 years, uncovering a vast Old Kingdom necropolis of pyramids, tombs and funerary complexes, as well as tombs dating from the New Kingdom about 1,000 years later.

Still, only about a third of the Saqqara complex has been explored so far, with recent digging turning up a number of key finds.

The last new pyramid, found here three years ago, is thought to belong to the wife of Teti's successor, Pepi I.

In June, Hawass' team unveiled a "rediscovery" at Saqqara — a pyramid believed to have been built by King Menkauhor, an obscure pharaoh whose pyramid was first discovered in 1842 but was later buried in sand.

I wonder what they are really looking for?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7723477.stm

Is CNN Getting
Kicked Out Of Russia?
By Yasha Levine

eXiled Online
9-15-8

Putin may strip CNN of its Russian broadcasting rights after it refused to air a 30 minute exclusive interview he gave the network. You probably didn't know that CNN censored Putin for being just too darn sensible. Yep, it's true. About two weeks ago, Putin gave the network an exclusive 30-minute interview. And you know what happened? Nothing. It was never allowed to air. CNN doesn't know it yet, but that decision might have cost them their Russian broadcasting rights. On August 29, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with senior political correspondent Matthew Chance for a CNN exclusive interview. "This was unprecedented access to Russia's powerful prime minister, the former KGB spy now increasingly at odds with Washington," an overly dramatic voice-over introduced the segment as Chance and Putin enjoyed pre-game banter and a walk through the courtyard of Putin's palatial Sochi residence. Once seated, Chance didn't waste any time with his provocative questions: Matthew Chance: But it's been no secret either that for years you've been urging the West to take more seriously Russia's concerns about international issues. For instance, about NATO's expansion, about deployment of missile defense systems in eastern Europe. Wasn't this conflict a way of demonstrating that in this region, it's Russia that's the power, not NATO and certainly not theUnited States? Vladimir Putin: Of course not. What is more, we did not seek such conflicts and do not want them in the future. That this conflict has taken place -- that it broke out nevertheless -- is only due to the fact that no one had heeded our concerns. I think both you and your -- our -- viewers today will be interested to learn a little more about the history of relations between the peoples and ethnic groups in this regions of the world. Because people know little or nothing about it. If you think that this is unimportant, you may cut it from the program. Don't hesitate, I wouldn't mind. It was a prescient comment. Not only did CNN delete Putin's historical roundup of relations between Russia, Georgia and South Ossetia going back to the 18th century that followed, the network cut out almost everything else as well. Despite the "unprecedented access" hook, for its U.S. feed, CNN reduced the 30-minute interview into a series of sound bites that seized and ridiculed Putin's crackpot theory that the Republican party started the war to boost McCain's ratings. CNN's international audience, enjoying the news from hotel rooms all round the world, got to see a little more of the the footage. But most of it had to do with Russia's ridiculous "non political" decision to ban some American poultry importers from doing business with Russia because of their poor quality control standards. CNN's intentions were clear: Putin must come off looking like a fool. And it seemed Putin gave them the perfect material. Embargoes on dead chickens and global neocon conspiracies? Gosh, what serious self-respecting world leader would start talking this kind of gibberish? Even Ahmadinejaddoesn't sink that low. Well, the chicken meat embargo might have been a little weak, but the neocon conspiracy I'm not so sure about. But more on that later. (You can see the heavily edited interview clips on CNN website, but the network never made the full version available. But you can see it on Russian TV.) Not surprisingly, this didn't go down none too good with the Prime Minister. See, as it turns out, when Putin told CNN he wouldn't mind if they cut some of his comments, he wasn't exactly being honest. Not only did he mind, but he was sovereignly pissed off to find the entire interview censored. After all, he is the one that usually does the censoring. And it's not like he gives out TV interviews every month, or even every year. If I'm not mistaken, the last interview Putin gave to American TV was waaaay back in 2000, when he was on Larry King Live making crude comments about the sinking of the Kursk submarine. And then there's the issue of Saakashvili's CNN time. Just in the past month, Saakashvili has appeared a dozen times on the network giving interviews averaging 5 to 10 minutes each. As CNN correctly pointed out, Putin is a former KGB spy, so he knows all the details, down to the nearest second. And that's exactly why he's taken it as a personal insult from CNN's headquarters (and probably more proof of an international media/government conspiracy against him). But he just might have the last word. The word on the street here is Putin is out for blood. It's payback time. According to a source with high-level government connections, the Russians are planning punitive actions against CNN. At this point, it is just a rumor, but they are preparing to kick out about half of the half-dozen Western journalists working at CNN's Moscow bureau. Sooner or later they're going to have to apply for a visa renewal and that's when it's gonna go down.They'll be denied, clean and quiet like. We can only pray that the tool Matthew Chance is up for a new visa soon. So why did CNN decide to cut the interview? The thing is, Putin came off pretty darn well. Sure, the chicken embargo was embarrassing, but the McCain/neocon conspiracy theory wasn't as crazy as some would want you to believe. Gary Brecher has been saying all along that this little war had the mark of a half-baked neocon plan for world domination. As Gary says, Georgia's move makes no sense at all from a Georgian perspective. Somebody must have told those idiots they'd be safe to retake South Ossetia.And who better than Cheney? In general, Putin was able to strike an unusually sympathetic chord during the interview. It sure wasn't anything like the grotesque interview he gave eight years ago, where he made that cruel "it sank" Kursk joke. This time around, he was level headed, reasonable and, most importantly, very convincing and believable -- not what you'd expect from the evil Stalin/Hitler hybrid personality being pushed on the American public. And that worried the hell out of CNN editorial staff, enough to make them crudely censor the entire thing and hope no one noticed. So, what parts of Putin did CNN leave on the cutting room floor? Putin the anti-Stalinist: Therefore, those who insist that those territories must continue to belong to Georgia are Stalinists: They defend the decision of JosefVissarionovich Stalin. [It was Stalin who first split up Ossetia and gave the southern half to Georgia.] Putin the caring: For us, it is a special tragedy, because during the many years that we were living together the Georgian culture -- the Georgian people being a nation of ancient culture -- became, without a doubt, a part of the multinational culture of Russia.[C]onsideringthe fact that almost a million, even more than a million Georgians have moved here, we have special spiritual links with that country and its people. For us, this is a special tragedy. Putin the peaceful: You and I are sitting here now, having a quiet conversation in the city of Sochi. Within a few hundred kilometers from here, U.S. Navy ships have approached, carrying missiles whose range is precisely several hundred kilometers. It is not our ships that have approached your shores; it's your ships that have approached ours. So what's our choice? We don't want any complications; we don't want to quarrel with anyone; we don't want to fight anyone. We want normal cooperation and a respectful attitude toward us and our interests. Is that too much? Putin the conscientious business man: Construction of the first gas pipeline system was started during the 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, and for all those years, from the 1960s until this day, Russia has been fulfilling its contract obligations in a very consistent and reliable way, regardless of the political situation. We never politicize economic relations, and we are quite astonished at the position of some U.S. administration officials who travel to European capitals trying to persuade the Europeans not to buy our products, natural gas for example, in a truly amazing effort to politicize the economic sphere. In fact, it's quite pernicious. It's true that the Europeans depend on our supplies but we too depend on whoever buys our gas. That's interdependence; that's precisely the guarantee of stability.

U.S. may have staged Georgian conflict - Putin

n an interview with CNN Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict may have been staged to secure a victory for one of the presidential candidates in the U.S. He says preliminary reports show that U.S. citizens may have been present in the combat zone.

“We have serious reasons to believe that American citizens were right at the heart of the military action. This would have implications for American domestic policy. If this is confirmed, we will have grounds to suspect that somebody in the U.S. has created this conflict to aggravate the situation and create a competitive advantage for one of the presidential candidates”.

Russia’s Prime Minister also commented on the media coverage of the recent events.

“As far as the perception of these events by the general public goes, it depends not only on politicians, but also on how artful they are in controlling the mass media. And our American colleagues do this much better than we do and there's a lot we can learn from them”.

Putin stressed that Russia did not attack and cannot be portrayed as an aggressor.

“We didn’t attack anyone, we were attacked and therefore we need guarantees that we won’t be attacked again, and that our citizens won't be killed. They are trying to present us as aggressors”.

The Prime Minister has given a detailed chronology of the events between August 7 and 10.

“On 7 August, at 14:42, the Georgian peacekeepers left the headquarters of the peacekeeping forces under the pretext that they'd received orders from their commanders to leave their posts, and they never returned.

One hour later, heavy artillery shelling began.

At 22:35 a massive bombardment of Tsklhinval started. At 22:50 the transfer of Georgian ground troops started to the combat area. At the same time Georgian field hospitals were set up.

And at 23:30 the Brigadeer General commanding the Georgian peacekeeping forces announced that Georgia has declared a war against South Ossetia. They announced this publicly, looking straight into the TV cameras.

At that point we tried to contact the Georgian leadership, but everyone refused to talk to us.

At 12:45 AM on the 8th of August the Georgian commander repeated his statement. So who attacked whom?”

The former Russian president reiterated that the country has ‘no intention of attacking anyone, or of fighting a war with anyone’.

“For eight years while I was President I often heard one and the same question – what place does Russia think it should occupy in the world? We are a peace-loving state and want to co-operate with all our neighbours and other states. But if someone thinks they can just come in and kill us, and that our place is in the cemetery, these people should think of the consequences of such policies”.

http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/29626

Condoleeza Rice: Iran Not Serious at Nuke Meeting

No! I truly believed that the Iranians would come to this meeting with every intention of seriously negotiating. Right.
Apparently Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was a little surprised:
At the meeting, Iran had been expected to respond to a package of incentives offered in exchange for halting enrichment of uranium, which can be used to fuel atomic weapons. The Bush administration broke with long-standing policy to send a top diplomat to support the offer.
However, Rice said that instead of a coherent answer, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili delivered a “meandering” monologue full of irrelevant “small talk about culture” that appeared to annoy many of the others present at the table in Geneva.
“We expected to hear an answer from the Iranians but, as has been the case so many times with the Iranians, what came through was not serious,” Rice told reporters aboard her plane as she flew to the United Arab Emirates. “It’s time for the Iranians to give a serious answer.”
I have a question for Secretary Rice: how could you have “expected” an answer this time, but yet you admit the Iranians have a long history of not taking these negotiations seriously?
Can someone explain that to me? Apparently I’m not as enlightened as Secretary Rice.
But this brings up, yet again, the issue of what exactly is going on with this Iranian situation.
I stand by what I have been saying for about year now: and that’s Bush has either abandoned his own philosophy (the Bush Doctrine) and refuses to apply it to Iran, or he is scared of the Iranian threat or he believes he has stretched the military too thin to act.
It’s one or the other.
I do find it very curious that we decided within the last couple of weeks to send William Burns to the Iranian negotiations and that–thought not perfectly–coincides with all of this talk about sending some of the troops withdrawn from Iraq to Afghanistan.
Here’s my theory on this: prior to the last two weeks or so we had started to ramp up our rhetoric and there was a lot more speculation about a potential U.S. or Israeli attack on Iran. Also, there was certainly no mention of sending someone to these negotiations–at least not a high-level official.
Now we move into the last couple of weeks and we start hearing more and more about the successes in Iraq, but also about the resurgence of problems in Afghanistan and the need to send more troops to deal with that threat.
Could this be the reason for the sudden desire to change course on Iran? If so, it clearly demonstrates that so long as we’re in Afghanistan and Iraq it will be very unlikely that we would launch any sort of attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Stephen Hayes over at The Weekly Standard has a good piece out today documenting the hypocrisy and acquiescence of the Bush administration’s actions on Iran and North Korea.

http://theconservativebeacon.net/2008/07/21/condoleeza-rice-iran-not-serious-at-nuke-meeting/

Hundreds Of Baby Penguins Found Dead In Brazil.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Hundreds of baby penguins swept from the icy shores of Antarctica and Patagonia are washing up dead on Rio de Janeiro's tropical beaches, rescuers and penguin experts said Friday.
More than 400 penguins, most of them young, have been found dead on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro state over the past two months, according to Eduardo Pimenta, superintendent for the state coastal protection and environment agency in the resort city of Cabo Frio.
While it is common here to find some penguins — both dead and alive — swept by strong ocean currents from the Strait of Magellan, Pimenta said there have been more this year than at any time in recent memory.
Rescuers and those who treat penguins are divided over the possible causes.
Thiago Muniz, a veterinarian at the Niteroi Zoo, said he believed overfishing has forced the penguins to swim further from shore to find fish to eat "and that leaves them more vulnerable to getting caught up in the strong ocean currents."
Niteroi, the state's biggest zoo, already has already received about 100 penguins for treatment this year and many are drenched in petroleum, Muniz said. The Campos oil field that supplies most of Brazil's oil lies offshore.
Muniz said he hadn't seen penguins suffering from the effects of other pollutants, but he pointed out that already dead penguins aren't brought in for treatment.
Pimenta suggested pollution is to blame.
"Aside from the oil in the Campos basin, the pollution is lowering the animals' immunity, leaving them vulnerable to funguses and bacteria that attack their lungs," Pimenta said, quoting biologists who work with him.
But biologist Erli Costa of Rio de Janeiro's Federal University suggested weather patterns could be involved.
"I don't think the levels of pollution are high enough to affect the birds so quickly. I think instead we're seeing more young and sick penguins because of global warming, which affects ocean currents and creates more cyclones, making the seas rougher," Costa said.
Costa said the vast majority of penguins turning up are baby birds that have just left the nest and are unable to out-swim the strong ocean currents they encounter while searching for food.
Every year, Brazil airlifts dozens of penguins back to Antarctica or Patagonia.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-science/20080720/Brazil.Dead.Penguins/

Earth's Core, Magnetic Field Changing Fast, Study Says

Kimberly Johnsonfor National Geographic News
June 30, 2008

Rapid changes in the churning movement of Earth's liquid outer core are weakening the magnetic field in some regions of the planet's surface, a new study says."What is so surprising is that rapid, almost sudden, changes take place in the Earth's magnetic field," said study co-author Nils Olsen, a geophysicist at the Danish National Space Center in Copenhagen. The findings suggest similarly quick changes are simultaneously occurring in the liquid metal, 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers) below the surface, he said. The swirling flow of molten iron and nickel around Earth's solid center triggers an electrical current, which generates the planet's magnetic field. (Learn more about Earth's interior.)The study, published recently in Nature Geoscience, modeled Earth's magnetic field using nine years of highly accurate satellite data.Flip-FlopFluctuations in the magnetic field have occurred in several far-flung regions of Earth, the researchers found. In 2003 scientists found pronounced changes in the magnetic field in the Australasian region. In 2004, however, the changes were focused on Southern Africa.The changes "may suggest the possibility of an upcoming reversal of the geomagnetic field," said study co-author Mioara Mandea, a scientist at the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam.Earth's magnetic field has reversed hundreds of times over the past billion years, and the process could take thousands of years to complete.(Related story: "Magnetic Field Weakening in Stages, Old Ships' Logs Suggest" [May 11, 2006])Upper Atmosphere RadiationThe decline in the magnetic field also is opening Earth's upper atmosphere to intense charged particle radiation, scientists say.Satellite data show the geomagnetic field decreasing in the South Atlantic region, Mandea said, adding that an oval-shaped area east of Brazil is significantly weaker than similar latitudes in other parts of the world."It is in this region that the shielding effect of the magnetic field is severely reduced, thus allowing high energy particles of the hard radiation belt to penetrate deep into the upper atmosphere to altitudes below a hundred kilometers (62 miles)," Mandea said.This radiation does not influence temperatures on Earth. The particles, however, do affect technical and radio equipment and can damage electronic equipment on satellites and airplanes, Olsen of the Danish space center said.Keep WatchingThe study documents just how rapidly the flow in Earth's core is changing, said Peter Olson, a geophysics professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, who was not involved with the research. By using satellite imagery, researchers have a nearly continuous measurement of changes, he said."They provide a good rationale to continue this monitoring longer," Olson said.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/pf/76158139.html

Home-grown veg ruined by toxic fertiliser

Gardeners across Britain are reaping a bitter harvest of rotten potatoes, withered salads and deformed tomatoes after an industrial herbicide tainted their soil. Caroline Davies reports on how the food chain became contaminated and talks to the angry allotment owners whose plots have been destroyed

Gardeners have been warned not to eat home-grown vegetables contaminated by a powerful new herbicide that is destroying gardens and allotments across the UK.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has been inundated with calls from concerned gardeners who have seen potatoes, beans, peas, carrots and salad vegetables wither or become grossly deformed. The society admitted that it had no idea of the extent of the problem, but said it appeared 'significant'. The affected gardens and allotments have been contaminated by manure originating from farms where the hormone-based herbicide aminopyralid has been sprayed on fields.
Dow AgroSciences, which manufactures aminopyralid, has posted advice to allotment holders and gardeners on its website. Colin Bowers, Dow's UK grassland marketing manager, told The Observer that links to their products had been proved in some of the cases, but it was not clear whether aminopyralid was responsible for all of them and tests were continuing. 'It is undoubtedly a problem,' he said, 'and I have got full sympathy for everyone who is involved with this.'
He said the company was unable to advise gardeners that it was 'safe' to consume vegetables that had come into contact with the manure because of pesticide regulations. 'All we can say is that the trace levels of aminopyralid that are likely to be in these crops are of such low levels that they are unlikely to cause a problem to human health.'
The Dow website says: 'As a general rule, we suggest damaged produce (however this is caused) should not be consumed.' Those who have already used contaminated manure are advised not to replant on the affected soil for at least a year.
Aminopyralid, which is found in several Dow products, the most popular being Forefront, a herbicide, is not licensed to be used on food crops and carries a label warning farmers using it not to sell manure that might contain residue to gardeners. The Pesticides Safety Directorate, which has issued a regulatory update on the weedkiller, is taking samples from affected plants for testing.
Problems with the herbicide emerged late last year, when some commercial potato growers reported damaged crops. In response, Dow launched a campaign within the agriculture industry to ensure that farmers were aware of how the products should be used. Nevertheless, the herbicide has now entered the food chain. Those affected are demanding an investigation and a ban on the product. They say they have been given no definitive answer as to whether other produce on their gardens and allotments is safe to eat.
It appears that the contamination came from grass treated 12 months ago. Experts say the grass was probably made into silage, then fed to cattle during the winter months. The herbicide remained present in the silage, passed through the animal and into manure that was later sold. Horses fed on hay that had been treated could also be a channel.
Bryn Pugh, legal consultant at the National Society of Allotments and Leisure Gardeners, said he was preparing claims for some members to seek financial compensation from the manure suppliers. But it was extremely difficult to trace the exact origins of each contaminated batch. 'It seems to be everywhere. From what I know, it is endemic throughout England and Wales. We will be pressing the government to ban this product,' he said.
Aminopyralid is popular with farmers, who spray it on grassland because it controls weeds such as docks, thistles and nettles without affecting the grass around them. It binds itself to the woody tissue in the grass and only breaks down when exposed to bacteria in the soil.
Shirley Murray, 53, a retired management consultant with an allotment near Bushy Park in Hampton, south-west London, said several of her allotment neighbours had used the same manure bought from a stables and all were affected. 'I am absolutely incensed at what has happened and find it scandalous that a weedkiller sprayed more than one year ago, that has passed through an animal's gut, was kicked around on a stable floor, stored in a muck heap in a field, then on an allotment site and was finally dug into or mulched on to beds last winter is still killing "sensitive" crops and will continue to do so for the next year,' she said.
'It's very toxic, it shouldn't get into the food chain. You try to be as organic as you can and we have poisoned ourfood. I've been everywhere, emailed all the right people, but nobody will speak on the record to guarantee what is safe to eat. We all think it is a scandal. Not to mention what it has cost in time and money.'
Pesticide expert Professor Vyvyan Howard, a toxico-pathologist at Ulster University, said it was 'a very powerful herbicide' but in his opinion was 'unlikely to pose any human health risks'. However, advice about its use should be strengthened, he said. 'I think the thing that is going to drive this is the commercial damage that could be done to market gardeners,' he said.
Guy Barter, the RHS head of horticultural advisory services, said they were receiving more than 20 calls a week. 'Our advice is not to eat the vegetables because no one seems to have any idea whether it is safe to eat them and we can't give any assurances,' he said. 'It is happening all over the country. A lot of cases we are seeing is where people have got manure from stables and the stable have bought their hay from a merchant, and the merchant might have bought hay from many farmers, possibly from different parts of the country. So they have no idea where the hay came from. So finding someone to blame is quite difficult.' Weedkiller in the soil should dissipate by next year, but in stacks of contaminated manure it might take two or more years to decay, he added.
Dow is planning a major publicity campaign to reiterate warnings to farmers over usage, and to encourage allotment holders to check the provenance of manure that they put down in an effort to prevent the problem escalating. On compensation, it was less forthcoming. 'There is no easy answer to that,' said Bowers. 'The first port of call is always where the manure comes from. From that point on, I can't really comment.
'The chain is horrendously complicated. In the cases we have managed to trace back, we might find that the farmer who supplied the manure didn't spray anything himself, but he might have bought in a couple of bales of silage from one of his neighbours, and that farm might have sprayed.'
Robin and Christina Jones spread a large amount of manure over their flower garden and vegetable patch at their home in Banstead, Surrey. When the potatoes failed, Robin took a sample to the RHS, which identified aminopyralid. His neighbour, who bought from the same source, suffered the same problems. 'We have lost 80 per cent of our vegetable patch,' said Jones, 65, a retired sound engineer. Raspberries, French beans, onions, leeks, even a newly planted robina tree were all affected. 'We are distraught. But what worries me is that the courgettes look very healthy. Had we not had the problem with the potatoes, we might never have realised. Now we are advised not to eat them.
'This is a very serious issue, and people must be made aware of the advice not to eat vegetables grown in contaminated manure.'
Sue Ainsworth, 58, an education consultant, said around 20 allotments at her site in Hale, Cheshire, had been affected. 'We first noticed with the potatoes. As they came through, they were deformed, all curled over and rotten underneath. But the worry is that the courgettes also planted on the manure are fine - but are they safe to eat? This must have affected thousands of people. I am really worried about this product and really think it should be withdrawn.'
She said the farmer who supplied the manure said he had used nothing unusual. 'But he may have bought in the straw and genuinely knew nothing about the herbicide used.'
Susan Garrett, 57, an IT consultant, said 20 plots were affected at her allotment in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. 'And that is just the plants we can see are damaged. We are angry it has been allowed to happen - not with the chemical company, but because there doesn't seem to be any protection for us or anything to stop it happening again.'
What's the solution? Join the debate and find out more on our food blog
How to deal with the problem
Do you have contaminated manure?Tell-tale symptoms of crop damage include distorted foliage, with cupping of leaves and fern-like growth. There are no remedies once damage has occurred. Susceptible crops include potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peas, carrots and lettuce.
How should you deal with the affected area?Experts say rotavation is the best practice, or forking over several times as soon as possible. This incorporates the plant tissue into the soil, where it will decompose and the chemicals will eventually be degraded by soil microbes. Repeat the rotavation in late summer/early autumn.
Should you replant this season? No. The plant residues need to be given time to break down. The advice is not to replant for a year.
Why has the chemical lasted so long?Aminopyralid, like other herbicides, works by binding strongly to plant tissues. Once the plant's tissues decay, the chemical breaks down in the soil. If manure is stacked it takes far longer.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/29/food.agriculture

Is China Trying To Colonise Africa?

Submitted by Concerned Reader:Take note of the date this article was written. Jby David Blair, Telegraph, Aug 31, 2007 No one alive at the close of the 19th century could have missed the "scramble for Africa". A motley collection of robber barons, imperialist ideologues, explorers, rogues and adventurers - the likes of Cecil Rhodes and the appalling Leopold II, King of the Belgians - carved up the continent in the name of five European powers.Today, few appear to have noticed that a second "scramble for Africa" is under way. This time, only one giant country is involved, but its ambitions are every bit as momentous as those of Rhodes and company. With every day that passes, China's economic tentacles extend deeper into Africa. While Europe sought direct political control, China is acquiring a vast and informal economic empire.Reliable information on Beijing's African adventure is hard to come by. But we do know that trade between China and the world's poorest continent totalled about £30 billion last year - a sixfold increase since 2000.China now buys about one third of its oil from Africa, mainly from Angola, where an £800 million deal to develop a new field was signed last May, and from Sudan, where Beijing built a 900-mile pipeline and invested at least £8 billion. China is spending another £1.2 billion on a new offshore oilfield in Nigeria.Meanwhile, Beijing has acquired mines in Zambia, textile factories in Lesotho, railways in Uganda, timber in the Central African Republic and retail developments in almost every capital.The reasoning behind China's new focus on Africa is simple. If its economic boom is to be sustained, Beijing must find more raw materials and new markets for manufactured goods. Chinese oil consumption is forecast to grow by at least 10 per cent every year for the foreseeable future. At this level of demand, its domestic reserves will vanish within 20 years. Hence the quest for overseas oil. Yet Beijing's options are limited. America and the Western powers have already snapped up the world's largest oil reserves. Saudi Arabia and Iraq - with 45 per cent of the world's oil between them - are in effect closed to China. So the less developed tracts of Africa are an obvious target. Sudan's six billion barrels of proven reserves - with more still to be discovered - have become of vital strategic significance to China.These facts are of deep concern to many Africans. Their governments may welcome Chinese investment, but Africa's independent voices do not share this enthusiasm. The consequences of China's new role there have already been catastrophic.Thanks to Beijing's interest in Sudan's oil, President Omar al-Bashir's regime in Khartoum has received a windfall. Ten years ago, Sudan's oil revenues were negligible; last year, Chinese investment ensured that they totalled at least £3 billion. Without this ready cash, Mr Bashir could never have sustained the war in Darfur, where four years of fighting have claimed about 300,000 lives, either from violence, starvation or disease. The military machine that has laid waste to vast tracts of land, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes, was, in effect, bankrolled by Beijing. Moreover, China has sold weapons directly to Sudan, notably Fantan ground attack aircraft.Elsewhere, China provides a convenient alternative for African leaders spurned by the West for their human rights abuses. Devoid of aid and foreign investment, President Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe would be entirely isolated but for China's backing. Beijing has given Mugabe civilian and military aircraft, and its experts helped design a new mansion for the old dictator, in the style of a Chinese pagoda. Yesterday, the Chinese government assured Lord Malloch-Brown, the Foreign Office minister responsible for Africa and Asia, that any future aid for Zimbabwe would be purely humanitarian. Whether China will keep this promise is another matter: Mugabe's Zanu-PF has received Chinese money for at least 30 years; Zanu-PF's national headquarters in Harare - found, aptly enough, on Rotten Row - was built by China.The harsh truth is that Beijing has become the ally of choice for Africa's worst rulers. While China likes to portray itself as a benign force in Africa, free of the historical baggage carried by the former colonial powers, Beijing's conduct is already resented.During last year's presidential election in Zambia, the leading opposition candidate, Michael Sata, campaigned on an explicitly anti-Chinese ticket. Beijing's investment was, Mr Sata argued, almost entirely worthless for Zambia. Yes, China had reopened some copper mines, but the workers were being exploited and all health and safety regulations ignored. An industrial accident at one Chinese-run mine claimed 46 lives in 2005. Later, workers rioted over low wages and poor conditions. Meanwhile, local companies were being driven out of business by cheap imports. While Mr Sata lost the election overall, he won huge majorities in all the areas of Zambia affected by Chinese investment. His defeat prompted a day of anti-Chinese riots in the capital, Lusaka. Every Chinese-owned shop in the city was barricaded to avoid being looted. Meanwhile, shops owned by whites or Asians carried on trading without incident.Even inside Mugabe's crumbling domain, it has not gone unnoticed that all three MA-60 aircraft supplied by China to Air Zimbabwe have a terrifying history of engine fires and emergency landings. While Americans and Europeans have only just encountered shoddy Chinese consumer goods, ordinary Zimbabweans talk of "zing zong" products - by which they mean exports from China which have a tendency to break in your hands.Like all empires, China's economic domain in Africa is stirring deep resentment. The wonder is that it has happened so quickly, and where the scramble will end.

I think that everyone know, but us Africans in America that the Motherland is where all the earth's natural resources are.

http://www.africancrisis.co.za/Article.php?ID=28963

Mississippi River Set To Burst Its Banks

The Mississippi river is in danger of bursting its banks after the heaviest rainfall in more than 15 years.
If it does, thousands of acres of farmland and homes will be swamped, the US Army has warned.
It could also lead to a food crisis.
Currently a series of levees are keeping the river at bay - although one in Illinois has already collapsed.
Volunteers and National Guard troops helped reinforce or raise levees on both sides of the river, trying to protect low-lying businesses, water supplies, and prime farmland planted with crops

The US Army Corps of Engineers estimated that 26 levees protecting about 285,000 acres of prime cropland were either already yielding to high water or at risk of doing so.
It comes as record floodwaters from Iowa and farther north drained down the Mississippi, the main US inland waterway.
Across the river from Burlington, Iowa, a levee broke in Gulfport, Illinois, sending muddy waters cascading onto nearby farmland and a few homes.
Corn and soybean prices closed near record highs after millions of acres of US cropland were lost or damaged in the heart of the world's largest grain exporter.
Cattle and hog futures prices also hit new highs, with soaring feed costs expected to prompt farmers to cull livestock numbers.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080618/twl-mississippi-river-set-to-burst-its-b-3fd0ae9.html

Folks Waiting In line For Food.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=4147702n&channel=/sections/eveningnews/videoplayer3420.shtml

Weather warfare

Rarely acknowledged in the debate on global climate change, the world’s weather can now be modified as part of a new generation of sophisticated electromagnetic weapons. Both the US and Russia have developed capabilities to manipulate the climate for military use.
Environmental modification techniques have been applied by the US military for more than half a century. US mathematician John von Neumann, in liaison with the US Department of Defense, started his research on weather modification in the late 1940s at the height of the Cold War and foresaw ‘forms of climatic warfare as yet unimagined’.
During the Vietnam war, cloud-seeding techniques were used, starting in 1967 under Project Popeye, the objective of which was to prolong the monsoon season and block enemy supply routes along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
The US military has developed advanced capabilities that enable it selectively to alter weather patterns. The technology, which is being perfected under the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), is an appendage of the Strategic Defense Initiative – ‘Star Wars’. From a military standpoint, HAARP is a weapon of mass destruction, operating from the outer atmosphere and capable of destabilising agricultural and ecological systems around the world.
Weather-modification, according to the US Air Force document AF 2025 Final Report, ‘offers the war fighter a wide range of possible options to defeat or coerce an adversary’, capabilities, it says, extend to the triggering of floods, hurricanes, droughts and earthquakes: ‘Weather modification will become a part of domestic and international security and could be done unilaterally… It could have offensive and defensive applications and even be used for deterrence purposes. The ability to generate precipitation, fog and storms on earth or to modify space weather… and the production of artificial weather all are a part of an integrated set of [military] technologies.’
In 1977, an international Convention was ratified by the UN General Assembly which banned ‘military or other hostile use of environmental modification techniques having widespread, long-lasting or severe effects.’ It defined ‘environmental modification techniques’ as ‘any technique for changing – through the deliberate manipulation of natural processes – the dynamics, composition or structure of the earth, including its biota, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, or of outer space.’
While the substance of the 1977 Convention was reasserted in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) signed at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, debate on weather modification for military use has become a scientific taboo. Military analysts are mute on the subject. Meteorologists are not investigating the matter and environmentalists are focused on greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. Neither is the possibility of climatic or environmental manipulations as part of a military and intelligence agenda, while tacitly acknowledged, part of the broader debate on climate change under UN auspices.
The HAARP Programme
Established in 1992, HAARP, based in Gokona, Alaska, is an array of high-powered antennas that transmit, through high-frequency radio waves, massive amounts of energy into the ionosphere (the upper layer of the atmosphere). Their construction was funded by the US Air Force, the US Navy and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Operated jointly by the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Office of Naval Research, HAARP constitutes a system of powerful antennas capable of creating ‘controlled local modifications of the ionosphere’. According to its official website, www.haarp.alaska.edu, HAARP will be used ‘to induce a small, localized change in ionospheric temperature so physical reactions can be studied by other instruments located either at or close to the HAARP site’.
But Rosalie Bertell, president of the International Institute of Concern for Public Health, says HAARP operates as ‘a gigantic heater that can cause major disruptions in the ionosphere, creating not just holes, but long incisions in the protective layer that keeps deadly radiation from bombarding the planet’. Physicist Dr Bernard Eastlund called it ‘the largest ionospheric heater ever built’.
HAARP is presented by the US Air Force as a research programme, but military documents confirm its main objective is to ‘induce ionospheric modifications’ with a view to altering weather patterns and disrupting communications and radar. According to a report by the Russian State Duma: ‘The US plans to carry out large-scale experiments under the HAARP programme [and] create weapons capable of breaking radio communication lines and equipment installed on spaceships and rockets, provoke serious accidents in electricity networks and in oil and gas pipelines, and have a negative impact on the mental health of entire regions.’
An analysis of statements emanating from the US Air Force points to the unthinkable: the covert manipulation of weather patterns, communications and electric power systems as a weapon of global warfare, enabling the US to disrupt and dominate entire regions.
Weather manipulation is the pre-emptive weapon par excellence. It can be directed against enemy countries or ‘friendly nations’ without their knowledge, used to destabilise economies, ecosystems and agriculture. It can also trigger havoc in financial and commodity markets. The disruption in agriculture creates a greater dependency on food aid and imported grain staples from the US and other Western countries.
HAARP was developed as part of an Anglo-American partnership between Raytheon Corporation, which owns the HAARP patents, and British Aerospace Systems (BAES). The HAARP project is one among several collaborative ventures in advanced weapons systems between the two defence giants.
The HAARP project was initiated in 1992 by Advanced Power Technologies, Inc. (APTI), a subsidiary of Atlantic Richfield Corporation (ARCO). APTI (including the HAARP patents) was sold by ARCO to E-Systems Inc, in 1994.
E-Systems, on contract to the CIA and US Department of Defense, outfitted the ‘Doomsday Plan’, which ‘allows the President to manage a nuclear war’. Subsequently acquired by Raytheon Corporation, it is among the largest intelligence contractors in the World.
BAES was involved in the development of the advanced stage of the HAARP antenna array under a 2004 contract with the Office of Naval Research. The installation of 132 highfrequency transmitters was entrusted by BAES to its US subsidiary, BAE Systems Inc. The project, according to a July report in Defense News, was undertaken by BAES’s Electronic Warfare division. In September it received DARPA’s top award for technical achievement for the design, construction and activation of the HAARP array of antennas.
The HAARP system is fully operational and in many regards dwarfs existing conventional and strategic weapons systems. While there is no firm evidence of its use for military purposes, Air Force documents suggest HAARP is an integral part of the militarisation of space. One would expect the antennas already to have been subjected to routine testing.
Under the UNFCCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has a mandate ‘to assess scientific, technical and socioeconomic information relevant for the understanding of climate change’. This mandate includes environmental warfare. ‘Geo-engineering’ is acknowledged, but the underlying military applications are neither the object of policy analysis or scientific research in the thousands of pages of IPCC reports and supporting documents, based on the expertise and input of some 2,500 scientists, policymakers and environmentalists.
‘Climatic warfare’ potentially threatens the future of humanity, but has casually been excluded from the reports for which the IPCC received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Michel Chossudovsky is a Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and an editor at the Centre for Research on Globalization, www.globalresearch.ca


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